caa a22 4500 475763114 CHVBK 20180406123557.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170329e20000901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1023/A:1010181015496 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1023/A:1010181015496 Lowe Stuart Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, YO1 5DD, York, U.K. aut A tale of two cities - rental housing in Budapest and Sofia in the 1990s [Elektronische Daten] [Stuart Lowe] The paper describes the findings of a study conductedduring 1997-1998 on changes to the structure of rentalhousing provision in two post-communist cities,Budapest and Sofia. After nearly a decade of 'stransition' to market economies, the public rentalsectors have shrunk dramatically and becomeresidualised. Despite the rapid privatisation andassociated growth of owner-occupation there is littlesign that the privately rented sector (PRS) isregaining any of its pre-communist stature as theprincipal form of housing provision. There is almostno company landlordism and 80 percent of thelandlords in both cities let out only one property.They are mainly 'sincidental' landlords who haveinherited or previously owned the property. Few havebought it as an investment. There are few signs ofinstitutional support for the PRS in either city.Despite this common context, the reasons for thedevelopment of the PRS in the two cities aresignificantly different. In both cities the PRSaccounts for about 4 percent of households. But inSofia nearly half the landlords let out their ownhouse for income, depressing their housing consumptionagainst a back-cloth of poverty and desperate need forincome. 'sLandlords' move in with relatives or to'ssecond homes'. Thus a large number of landlords arealso tenants in another property. In Budapest, unlikeSofia, new entrants to this market have fallen sharplyin the last 18 months. High taxation, falling realhouse prices and over-supply of property, followingthe rapid privatisation of the state rental housingstock, are the underlying problems inhibiting thegrowth of this sector. There is no sign of a return tothe tenure that was the foundation of their urbandevelopment, although explanations for this differbetween the two societies. The 'stransition to themarket', at least in housing, continues to be parlousand immature. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000 Budapest nationallicence housing nationallicence post-communism nationallicence Sofia nationallicence transition nationallicence Journal of Housing and the Built Environment Kluwer Academic Publishers 15/3(2000-09-01), 249-266 1566-4910 15:3<249 2000 15 10901 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010181015496 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010181015496 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Lowe Stuart Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, Heslington, YO1 5DD, York, U.K aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Housing and the Built Environment Kluwer Academic Publishers 15/3(2000-09-01), 249-266 1566-4910 15:3<249 2000 15 10901 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer